In recent years, there have been many developments of significance in the manner in which books are made. These developments have served to enhance the quality of books, the cost-effectiveness of the manufacture of books and the desirability of books to the reader. In fact, while bookmaking is a well known art, the progress that has been made in recent years has been noteworthy in many respects.
By way of example, Ecclestone U.S. Pat. No. 2,935,337 discloses an outer cover which included an inwardly folded flap that had a slit to form an integral bookmark. Much later, Troyen U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,652 discloses forming the flyleaf of a book with an inwardly folded portion that serves as a bookmark or, alternatively, adhesively securing the equivalent of the inwardly folded portion to the flyleaf of an existing book. In the Troyen '652 patent, the adhesive serves to permanently secure the equivalent of the inwardly folded portion to the flyleaf of books which are already in use.
As for other examples, Tanaka U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,053 discloses a bookmark and magnifying lens combination. One embodiment in the Tanaka '053 patent has a vertical perforation formed on an inwardly folded portion of a protective jacket which can subsequently be removed for the purpose of being used as a bookmark. In this manner, the Tanaka '053 patent is similar to Boyette U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,759 which discloses a removable bookmarker strip.
More specifically, the Boyette '759 reissue patent claims a soft-back book having a protective cover which is formed of heavier material than the pages of the book. The protective cover overlies opposite sides of a plurality of pages and a spine edge, and it has perforations along a foredge marking a narrow strip which may be detached from the foredge and used as a bookmarker. In addition, the Boyette '759 patent claims a protective cover being folded along the perforations such that the narrow strip is interposed between the plurality of pages and the protective cover.
In yet another example of recent bookmaking developments, Reiter U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,861 discloses a transparent overlay for placement over printed material for the purpose of being able to make notations on the transparent overlay over the printed material without leaving permanent markings.
With regard to the attempts to provide a bookmarker, they have met with varying degrees of success. It is desirable for a book of any type, including a soft-back book, to have an integral bookmark when the book is sold. However, to be successful, a bookmark must be easily manufactured, remain associated with the book through sale, and be easily separated from the book for use by the reader.
In one or more respects, the earlier attempts discussed above have failed to meet these criteria in their entirety. As a result, the present invention is directed to overcoming this failure and achieving one or more of the resulting objects.